For 4 year of my life I ran a games accelerator called GameFounders. The first two years were dramatically different from the last two and I will tell you why. Just to rush ahead, I can say the last two years included what was the predecessor of Pegasus and me having a lot more time for supporting the teams.
But first a quick glance of what we did in the first place. GameFounders worked with game studios at their earliest stage. One team had met only just 2 weeks before being accepted, while the most advanced one had around 20k revenue. We selected ten teams at a time and they all went through a 3-month program. The program included mentoring, training, pitch practice, conferences and demo days. Our mentor base included around 200 mentors globally and the total teams amounted to over 70 at the end of the 4 years.
Now to the point. The first two years, that we ran the program in Europe, we were making things up on the go. Applications through google forms, then external evaluation through another set of google forms, huge excel spreadsheet to get that all together. Sending teams’ info to mentors by email, co-ordinating times on their calendar, matching that with the teams, entering mentor data on the website, same for teams, sending teams the training program, update emails when it changed, etc. You get the idea. Not fun. Also not a lot of time to look for new mentors that would match the needs of the teams and other things that would add value.
So when we decided to do our second program in Asia, we were determine to change that. We needed technology. We had tried to use different options during the first two years already. Every time it ended up being a combination of tools that did not talk to each other. We needed a system that covers all and takes down the admin time. Enter Pegasus! Well the predecessor, the first version was far from perfect.
Suddenly we had time on our hands. The website was automatically up to date. The evaluators saw the applications and we just had to keep an eye on the timeline. The mentors and teams saw each others’ information and schedules. Everyone could manage and update their own profiles. Program information was immediately accessible to everyone. And we had instant feedback on everything. Heaven.
By today the product is even more evolved. There are team collaboration tools, a notification system, mentor time tracking, etc. Everything is there, but still looking simple and easy to use. Just check it out! There is your answer to what is this Pegasus. Even more good news is that now it is available for all accelerators and incubators to use! Happy to share my experience in running GameFounders as well as consulting and launching a number of other initiatives. Get in touch!
